Scotland On Road To Recovery

16 November 2013 10:11

Viewed : 23

Scotland may have been the sick man of European football of late but there are signs that the new prescription written by Gordon Strachan is having a positive effect.

Gordon Strachan can see some progress being delivered by the Scotland side under his leadership. Friday night saw they secure a draw against the USA who thrashed the home side 5-1 in Jacksonville as Landon Donovan scored a hat-trick for the USA. In what was to be the last game at Hampden before it is transformed for the Commonwealth Games, neither side was able to break the deadlock. Scotland's best chance n the night was a Robert Snodgrass free-kick where the Norwich City forward's curled effort was parried away by Tim Howard in the USA goal. Strachan made several changes ahead of the friendly and was impressed by his new introductions, especially 32-year-old debutant Gordon Greer in defence. The focus for Strachan and Scotland is qualification for the 2016 European Championship and he can see signs of advancement with Scotland now unbeaten in their last three games. Norway away is the next game on the agenda for Strachan where he expects his players to be challenged again but he insists there are positives to be taken from a draw against a USA side ranked 13th in the world.Strachan said: "There were a couple of things which reaffirm we are progressing and others we can work on. We made changes but their changes threw us a bit, they're a strong, physical side. I was happy with the players who came in. Gordon Greer did well, really happy with what he did. We have Norway on Tuesday and we know that will provide a different test. Again a physical side but we'll change it about a little bit, give some of the lads who haven't had a game recently a run. It's not a bad result. A lot of players can go away from here thinking that wasn't bad. As a group I think we can do better, I think if we are to beat top teams, our passing must be spot on. If we can do that, we'll give most teams a game."